About Us
Welcome!
Welcome to Olive Elementary! We are proud neighborhood school where diversity is celebrated and every child is supported. We work closely together to build an environment that is safe, welcoming, and inclusive for every student. At Olive, we believe that when children are given the right supports, structures, and encouragement, they can access meaningful learning and grow at their own pace. We focus on helping each student make real progress socially, emotionally, and academically. We are the Olive SHARKS and we strive to be Safe, Helpful, Always respectful, Responsible, and Kind!
Principal Lori Hiura
School Profile
Olive Elementary School offers Novato youth a supportive educational environment to learn and grow from Transitional Kindergarten through 5th grade. Built in 1952, Olive Elementary was Novato’s first grammar school and is today one of eight public elementary schools within the Novato Unified School District.
Olive Elementary offers a home-away-from-home for a diverse body of roughly 360 students from surrounding neighborhoods plus two Marin County Special Day classes that serve students with special needs from around the county.
We are committed to providing a challenging, standards-based instructional program that focuses on developing the knowledge and skills in students required for them to become responsible and resilient learners in a rapidly changing world. The Olive community is conscientious, collaborative, respectful, and takes pride in its diversity.
Our Mission
Our mission is to inspire all students to develop an enthusiasm for learning and self-reliance as they become contributing members of the world.
Our Vision
Olive Elementary School is known for encouraging a climate of collaboration through Professional Learning Community Strategies. We also believe in educating the “whole child.” While all students will meet or exceed the standards for learning by demonstrating their full potential, we want our students to develop independence, perseverance, and the skills to work positively and respectfully with others in order to become life-long learners.
Student Support
Our goal is to support the whole child by fostering students’ social, emotional, personal, and academic growth. Olive provides additional support for students who may be facing academic challenges, emotional disregulation, decision-making concerns, or peer-related issues. The support service personnel available at Olive Elementary are listed below.
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Universal Access is a dedicated 45-minute block held three to four times each week to ensure every student receives the support or enrichment they need without missing core instruction. During this time, students may receive Specialized Academic Instruction (SAI) through their Individualized Education Program (IEP), work in small intervention groups with a paraeducator or classroom teacher to strengthen targeted academic skills, or participate in enrichment projects designed to challenge and extend learning for students meeting or exceeding grade-level expectations. This flexible support helps ensure all students have access to meaningful, personalized learning opportunities.
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We also have a Multilingual Learner Specialist who provides targeted small-group language development instruction for newcomer students and those who are continuing to build English proficiency. Our multilingual learners receive both integrated and designated language support within the classroom and during Universal Access time. In addition, every teacher at Olive is trained in GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) strategies to support language development and help all students build a strong foundation in academic vocabulary.
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Olive offers counseling services to support students’ social-emotional well-being. Students may receive counseling to help with emotional regulation, peer conflict, problem-solving, or other social and emotional needs. In addition to individual support, our counselor facilitates small-group sessions focused on building specific social skills, such as developing positive peer relationships, making responsible choices, and using safe hands and bodies. Our counselor also hosts a weekly Lunch Bunch, which provides students with guided opportunities to practice friendship skills, cooperative play, and healthy conflict resolution in a supportive setting.
Enrichment Activities
At Olive, we believe enrichment experiences help spark curiosity, creativity, and a love of learning. All students participate in weekly STEAM classes that integrate art standards into project-based engineering lessons, helping students develop creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking skills.
Thanks to the generous support of our PTA we are able to offer a variety of enriching opportunities throughout the year. Students participate in gardening classes for ten weeks each year, where they learn about native plants, which fruits and vegetables thrive in our local climate, and how to grow and harvest produce. Our TK and KIndergarten students also enjoy weekly JAMaROO sessions, a Bay Area enrichment program that brings music, dance, yoga, and movement to our youngest learners.
In addition, students participate in a variety of field trips and school assemblies throughout the year, providing meaningful experiences that extend learning beyond the classroom.
Parent Engagement
Parent involvement is crucial to a child’s daily success in school. The efforts of the Olive School PTA, Site Council, and ELAC directly support programs and materials to enhance the daily instructional program. The strong commitment of our parents/guardians and families is reflected in the high level of classroom volunteers and the concrete results of the PTA’s fundraising efforts. The PTA provides assemblies and field trips for extended learning, organizes after-school enrichment classes for all students, and supports collaborative community events such as the Halloween celebration and the Tour of Novato. The staff is committed to continued collaboration with our school Leadership Team, PTA, ELAC, and the broader community to strengthen the support we can offer students to achieve their educational potential.
Facilities
The Olive Elementary campus is situated on thirteen acres and features 21 classrooms, a multipurpose room/cafeteria, library, staff lounge, shade structure, two outdoor classrooms, and three playgrounds. Originally constructed in 1952, Olive has undergone significant modernization, including updated classrooms and a renovated multipurpose room. A newly built front office now provides dedicated workspace for the many staff members who support our students each day.
Our campus also includes two outdoor learning spaces, thoughtfully built by parent volunteers, that provide additional opportunities for hands-on learning and collaboration. One outdoor classroom is located near the upper lunch tables, and the other is near the Kindergarten classrooms.
The playgrounds have also been recently refurbished and updated to better support safe play and student engagement. Kindergarten students enjoy their own fenced playground. There is a split-terraced upper playground for 1st and 2nd grade students, and a split-terraced lower playground and playing field for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students. In addition, the City of Novato maintains an adjacent fenced playing field for community use.
Our library, staffed by a full-time Library Clerk, offers a wide selection of reference materials, special interest resources, and hundreds of educational and recreational books. Students visit the library regularly during class time and are encouraged to develop a lifelong love of reading.
Technology Resources
Chromebooks are accessible to all 2nd - 5th grade students in the classroom. Class sets of IPads are available for students to use in TK – 1st grades. Computer skills and concepts are integrated throughout standard curriculum which helps to prepare students for technological growth and other opportunities. Students have been trained in the following programs: Type to Learn, STAR Reading, Accelerated Reader, IXL, Starfall, Websites of adopted curriculum series, and the Google Suite.
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